TEACHERS UNION DEFEATED

On Wednesday the Ingham County Circuit Court in Lansing booted a lawsuit brought by the Michigan Education Association, the union for public school teachers.  The MEA tried to get the court to shut down thirty-two charter schools operated by Bay Mills Community College, an Indian institution located in the U.P.  One of Bay Mills charter schools is Vista Charter Academy in Wyoming.

The MEA wanted the court to cut off state funding to all the schools chartered by Bay Mills that were not sited on the Indian reservation in Brimley.  Apparently the MEA thought that the Indian college should not have the same right as all other public universities in the state to charter a school anywhere in Michigan.  Fortunately, the court in Lansing put a stop to this nasty piece of business by the MEA.

The lesson from this is that the education of your children is not a priority for the teachers union.  The MEA will do whatever it takes to protect its monopoly on the public school teaching contracts in this state.  The union knows that monopoly is threatened by charter schools, so it files lawsuits like the one against Bay Mills to crush that competition -- even if it means arguing that Indians don't have the same rights as everyone else in Michigan.

When it comes to defending their turf and all the tax dollars attached to it, the teachers union will get as ugly as it needs -- and the kids and common decency be damned.